When technology means doing the same thing in a difficult way!

I want to start off by saying that I think the use of technology as part of the learning process for students has opened up endless opportunities for them. This post is more about us, as educators. Now, this is not a criticism or a judgement, it's just something that I have been thinking about. We have introduced BYOD for our year 7 students this year, which has been an amazing adventure for all involved, staff and students alike. So, I have been busily looking for lots of different ways to utilise this great resource. As you know, I am a Mathematics teacher and many would say that mathematics is a very traditional subject with a rigid set of processes and rules, and in some ways it can be. Mathematics also provides many great problem solving opportunities which requires high order thinking processes. So you would think the integration of technology in a meaningful way into mathematics would be difficult, and until I really started looking, I would have agreed. I have been surprised at all the great things you can do, not just with the iPad, but also with a laptop.  

At the start of this year, I had a goal to go as paperless as I could and I am still passionate about doing that. To help this occur, I have been providing my students with PDF documents via google drive and then they annotate them using PDF cabinet and then share them back with me in their shared google drives. And that has been fine, the work flow isn't ideal, but the students have managed to do that. However, it is more difficult for me to mark their work this way than if they had completed it on paper. While looking for ways to simplify this process I realised that I was trying to make the iPad a worksheet, which quite obviously it isn't. Thinking about what I was doing, and others, I realised I was trying to get the iPad to change instead of me changing. I was wanting to do the same as I'd always done, and try and get the iPad to fit. So I have another goal this year, stop trying to change an inanimate object and make some significant changes myself.

Let the games begin!

I have decided to trial gamification next term with one of my classes. I have placed all my students into teams, and they will gain points for themselves and their teams. There are many activities which they will have the opportunity to complete in order to gain "skill points". The rationale is to try and increase student engagement in "extra" tasks and to also benefit them by improving their skills in mathematical thinking.
To get the ball rolling, on the last day of term, I put the students into their groups, I didn't tell them any details of what is to come. They were told that they needed to come up with a team name.

They also needed to plan their team logo.

And then create the logo digitally on their iPads.

I was impressed with the number of different apps used to create their logos.

I have been busily creating the rules and the criteria for gaining points. Working out levels and setting up google forms and sheets for keeping track of the points. I can't wait to get started, I'll let you know how it goes.

In a world of zeros and ones, are you a 0 or 1?

I was undertaking a MOOC just recently and had the opportunity to revisit binary numbers. As a Mathematics teacher and lover of all things to do with numbers I couldn't pass up this chance to have some fun with some of my students. We have a small group of students who are part of the APE (Academic Program for Enrichment) program so I thought they would be the perfect group to do some activities with.
Firstly, I created this little video as an introduction to the idea of binary numbers. It's purpose wasn't to teach the concept but more to showcase how an iPad can be used to create something (these students have all been given an iPad to use as part of the APE program).

The students were all given the opportunity to be a bit and become part of a byte. We worked together to do some conversion of numbers from our decimal system to the binary system.

They then practised doing some conversions themselves with the assistance of the BinaryGame app for their iPads 
(https://itunes.apple.com/au/app/cisco-binary-game/id413058105?mt=8)

We then looked in simplistic terms, letting a = 1, b =2 and so on up to z = 26, so to get the understanding that every number, letter and character can be represented by a binary number. The students then went about writing their name, birthday and a sentence in binary code.

We then looked at the idea of a Pixel being on or off (1 or 0). The students were given a set of binary instructions to follow in order to produce a picture.

They were given a grid, via google drive, and then using the app PDFCabinet (https://itunes.apple.com/au/app/pdf-cabinet-2.0/id764366087?mt=8) they were able to create the picture.

We also spoke about modems and their purpose. We discussed how we can use sound to demonstrate on or off (high note or low note) to send a message. The students were able to play around with garage band and use music to send a message.

I really enjoyed the opportunity to experiment with a few different concepts/ideas. The students enjoyed being able to use a few different apps and being able to make use of their iPads.

The Paddle Pop Effect Part 2

I said I would update you on my progress with the paddle pop sticks. Initially when I started using the sticks I only trialled it with two of my classes. I was so happy with the impact of the sticks that I have adopted the approach with all my classes. The students who were apprehensive at the start, now say they love it. 

The students have made suggestions to improve the implementation also. One being that I have a stick in the cup also, so I got my 6 year old daughter decorate some sticks for me. I always enjoy pulling them out, especially when I say I hope I don't get pulled out because this is a really hard question.

Another change, with one of my classes is that, I pull out a stick at the start of the lesson and then that person is responsible for stick selection for the lesson, the students really like that. It is definitely a positive experience for the students because they complain if they are not pulled out and they always remind me if I have forgotten to get the sticks out of the cupboard. If you are looking for a small thing to change then I suggest you give it a go.

Creation not Consumption

This week I conducted an iPad bootcamp for students involved in our APE (ACADEMIC PROGRAM for ENRICHMENT) program. In the program, each student is provided with an iPad to assist them to be more self directed in their learning.

Throughout the bootcamp the students were shown how to navigate around the iPad using gestures and were introduced to a few apps.

My school is using GAFE (google apps for education), so the students were shown how to use google drive as a tool for managing work flow, for working in collaboration and for sharing their work with their teachers.

Some of the other apps that the students worked with were popplet lite, for the initial planning, explain everything, to create a simple video of their ideas and book creator for their final presentation.

My goal for these students is that they will become creators not consumers. I hope that they will use the iPad as a tool to create and share their knowledge and not just as a browsing tool to collect facts. These students have an invaluable opportunity to have access to a device that can be used to develop their talents further.

We have been looking at ways of conducting formative assessment lately. So, I decided to create a template in the "explain everything" app for the students to complete at the end of the bootcamp. It was a good opportunity for me to get feedback so I can improve future bootcamps and it was also an opportunity for the students to reflect on what they had done in the bootcamp.

This is the response of one of the students.

Get out of my Domain!

It is always a challenge for my students to understand the concept of domain and range of functions. With limited graphing experience at this stage, and without the use of calculus yet, this is quite a difficult thing for students to comprehend. In the last couple of years I have used GeoGebra to help when I am teaching this, I would project graphs of functions onto the board and discuss with my students the features of the graphs including the domain and range.

This year I have a class where every student has a laptop, so I decided to have the students enter the functions into GeoGebra to generate the graphs.

It is interesting the assumptions that we make about our students. I thought this would be an easy task for my students to complete. 

Well wasn't I surprised. Even though my students are what you would consider digital natives, I am starting to learn that they know what that know, which is usually games and social media, and not too much more when it comes to technology. Don't get me wrong, there are students who a brilliant when it comes to technology, but they don't represent the majority. 

I assumed that the students would be able to enter functions with powers and also with fractions. They were unaware that "^" was used to represent powers and "/" for fractions. 

So what started off being a lesson on domain and range, ended up being so much more than that.

I was glad with my decision to use GeoGebra in this way as it made me more aware of the capacities of my students. I think it was a worthwhile experience for my students also, who gained some technology skills while investigating the domain and range of some pretty cool functions. And to top things off, I've been able to talk a lot about asymptotes!

The Paddle Pop Effect

I have just attended a staff professional development day at my school a couple of days ago. We discussed formative assessment and different strategies that can be used in the classroom. One of the strategies, we looked at, which has been advocated by Dylan William for many years is "The hands up free classroom".
When you ask questions throughout your lesson, usually what happens is, the students raise their hands and you pick a student to answer it. Quite often it might be the same handful of students that contribute to most lessons. In the hands up free classroom, you have a paddle pop stick (or something similar) with the name of each student written on it. I wanted my students to feel part of this process, so I let them all decorate their own paddle pop sticks.

So now, when you ask a question, instead of the students raising their hands, they keep them down. Instead, you select a paddle pop stick, and whatever name is on the stick is the person who answers the question.

When I decided to try this strategy with one of my classes, I took the time to explain to them what we were doing and why. I have to admit there were some who had a look of horror on their face. They were worried that their stick would get pulled out and they wouldn't know the answer. I have only tried this strategy for a couple of lessons, and I can already see the benefits of it. According to Dylan William, students who answer questions in class are getting smarter, so I thought this strategy was worth a try. Don't get me wrong, this is not the answer to your classroom management issues. I still have had challenges with some students. But, I can already see an impact on some of my students. So, as a strategy, my lesson structure and content is still the same. My questioning techniques as a tool for formative assessment are still the same, it's just how I source my answers which has changed. So for very little effort or change on my behalf, I think I can make a big difference in the way some of my students experience their learning of Mathematics. I'll report back at the end of the term to update you on my progress.